Two Which Speak

Sometimes I fear that God may think I'll be proud because he continues to humble me all the time. Our God, through Jesus Christ, gave two sacraments. He commanded his people to observe both of these until he returned. They are baptism and the Lord's table. In the Gospel of Matthew, as we've heard already today, Jesus says this, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Some years later, in the Epistle of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wrote about the Lord's table, for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

And so today we worship God not only with our singing and our giving and our reading and our preaching, but also by observing these two sacraments commanded by Jesus. So let's just take a moment and ask God to bless our time in his word as we look at these and what they mean. Father, once more we come to you and thank you for the privilege that we have of meeting before you in your very presence. and we can meet before you not with fear in our hearts not with dread but we can meet you with joy we can meet you with love because we know that you are not an angry father with us but you are a father who welcomes us into his presence because of what jesus has done and you have commanded these two things of your church until the day that jesus returns and so we pray that today you would give us insight help us to understand it and lord some of these things are old truths We've known them for years, but impress them upon our minds to the point where we look to you with gratitude as we have celebrated these two today.

Thank you for your mercy to us in Jesus, both of which are which is signified in both of these sacraments. We pray, Father, that you would now help us to understand them even deeper. And we'll thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. When you go to an Ohio State game or if you don have an opportunity to do that you can go to Elgin High School you have no trouble distinguishing who your team is Whether it Ohio State or Elgin you can always tell the home team because they in as you go to the football games, they're in scarlet and gray jerseys.

And the other team, the visiting team, is always in white. Scarlet and gray is the sign of the home team. The team in white is always the visiting team. It's that way every week. The home team always wears the scarlet and gray when they're at home, and the visiting team is always in white. When I was a kid, we didn't have black and white television.

We didn't have color television. We had black and white television. And I can remember as a kid watching football, you could always tell who was the home team and who was the visiting team. You could always tell where the game was being played because the home team always had the dark jerseys on and the visiting team always had the white jerseys on. Now, when it comes to the team that really counts, and I mean that even above Ohio State, when you come to the team that really counts, you should be able to tell what team everyone is on.

Those who follow Christ, those who are Christians, should be easy to identify. Baptism is like that jersey. It tells you who belongs to Jesus' team. How do you know someone belongs to Jesus? He's been baptized. So this morning, let's consider what baptism says.

Once more, for the third time, turn to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28, here is where we find baptism mentioned very clearly to us in what Jesus says. Matthew 28 verse 18 and Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore because I have this authority because I have authority over all of the earth and heaven go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age.

Now, because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, He commissions men to go and make disciples of Him Not disciples of them but make disciples of him Those will follow him not those who bring the message but those who would follow Jesus Now in this commission, Jesus tells us something about baptism. And the first is this, baptism marks you as a disciple of Jesus. Baptism marks you as a disciple of Jesus.

Notice how Jesus describes the process of making disciples. He says, go into all the nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. We're to go out and do two things when we make disciples. You can see that baptism is part of that disciple-making dynamic.

It's part of making a follower of Jesus. If you want to follow Jesus, you must be baptized. And if you want to follow Jesus, then you have to learn to obey all his commands. Now notice, it doesn't, by the way, notice it doesn't say teaching them all my commandments. It says teaching them what? To obey all that I've commanded you.

Making a disciple involves two things. It involves baptism, and it involves translating truth into life. That is, taking the commands of Jesus and translating them into your life. So what is a disciple? What is a disciple? He uses that term.

We're so used to it. When we hear the word disciple, we usually think of 12 guys that follow Jesus. But a disciple is a common term of that era, And it still applies today. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're a disciple of Jesus. A disciple is a student. The idea of disciple is student.

And it's a student who binds himself to his master or his teacher to learn everything he has to teach. Now, when Jesus was alive, he wasn't the only one with disciples. Rabbis always had disciples. If you were a rabbi, you had a following. To follow a rabbi meant to be a disciple of that rabbi. Jesus didn't look any different than any other rabbi in his day.

Well other than the fact that he could multiply food and raise people from the dead But other than that other than that he looked like just another rabbi with his disciples It was common for rabbis to have disciples And what a disciple would do was he would pledge his allegiance to this rabbi and say, I want to follow you, which means I want to learn everything that you have to teach. I want to embrace everything that you have to teach. And so that's what we're saying when we're a disciple.

So when you enter the waters of baptism now, you are marked out. You are saying by that action, I am a follower of Jesus. And by this act, I testify to everyone that Jesus is my teacher. Jesus is my master. And I am committed to learning His ways. and I am further committed to obeying everything that he teaches me. That's what baptism is.

It's a clear statement, binding yourself to a teacher, to a master, and saying I'm committed to learn all his ways and I'm committed to follow and to obey all those ways. What exactly do you commit yourself to when you're baptized? Well, we could go to a thousand places. I'm going to take you to four. Okay? Turn over to Matthew 5.

Turn back a few chapters to Matthew 5. Matthew 5. Let's look at verses 21 through 24. Matthew 5, verses 21 to 24. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, all right, here's our teacher talking now.

Here's the master speaking to his followers. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. So, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.

First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Your baptism says that you hate anger. your baptism is saying I hate anger and I will be a peacemaker I will be one who will be ready to reconcile in fact your baptism says I'm going to be ready to reconcile out to my brother before I ever come to worship. If my brother has something against me, then I'm going to go and make it right before I ever come to worship.

You're saying that when you go into baptism. Look at Matthew, same chapter, verse 27. You've heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But, here's our teacher again, here's our master, but I say to you, okay, well what does he expect of us, his followers? But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell because you've been baptized others should expect purity of life and contentment in marriage.

That's what people should expect because you're baptized. If you're married. Isn't that interesting? In the Me Too generation where these tragic stories are coming out of men taking advantage of women and using their authority and their power to gain something that is not rightfully theirs. You're saying when you enter the waters of baptism that will not be true of me. the world should be able to look at me and see that i will not do those sorts of things that's what your baptism says look over at matthew chapter 10 for a moment matthew chapter 10 and i'm just i'm barely like taking a rock and skipping over the surface of the water i'm barely hitting what all the things that jesus requires but here are here's another one.

Matthew 10, beginning in verse 37 through 39. By the way, someone has once said, here's Jesus overturning traditional family values. You ever think of that? Here's what Jesus says. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Because you been baptized others should see your unquestioned loyalty to Jesus And one who does not live for self who takes up his cross and follows Jesus who loses his life That's what your baptism says.

I'm committed to that. One more, just one more. John 13, verses 34 and 35. John 13, 34 and 35 A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Baptism means that I have committed myself to loving the brothers and sisters in Christ. And it means that the world has the right to judge me on that. The world has the right to look at me and say, you do love your brothers and sisters. All these things is what baptism says. That's what you're committing yourself to. By baptism, you say, I am committed to obeying these commands of Jesus.

My whole life is now engaged in understanding and obeying these commandments. I hope you're getting the point here that baptism is a pretty serious thing. It's serious. but listen the focus of baptism is not the past it's not the past it's the present and the future the focus of baptism is the present and the future you're not saying I'm identifying myself with someone who died 2,000 years ago and rose from the grave that's not what you're saying rather you're saying I commit myself to the risen Jesus as Lord of my life as the boss as the king as the master of my life.

I've committed myself to the living Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord to follow and obey His commands for the rest of my life. That what Jake has said here today That what Jake is saying to you who are assembled here I am committed to following Christ for the rest of my life You know when I was young I was taught that baptism is a testimony and it is, but it's much more than a testimony. It says, Jesus is my Lord, and I will faithfully follow His commands no matter what the cost.

These waters, having gone into them, says to everyone assembled that it can cost me my family. It can cost me my job. It can cost me my life. But I am committed to following Christ. that's what it means it marks you out as a disciple some may be wondering well why don't you baptize babies everyone else seems to be doing that well the reason why is because infants cannot make that kind of a commitment it seems to me that in Matthew 28 Jesus is saying baptism is part of the disciple making process only those who have heard the gospel understood the gospel, who have chosen to follow Christ, only these are fit subjects of baptism.

That's why we only baptize believers, because that's what the Bible indicates. That's what the Bible tells us to do. So baptism marks you out as a disciple of Jesus, but baptism also makes you a member of Christ's church. Now, I grew up in a tradition that said, if you're a Christian, you need to be baptized. So then you were baptized. And then a couple months later, someone would come along and say, do you want to join the church?

And I can remember as a young pastor, the very first book I ever preached through, and boy, there aren't very many of you old timers around here anymore. that was 34 years ago if you were here it's hard to remember i'm sure because we're so old now but the first book i preached there was the book of acts i probably wouldn't do that again but i was young and stupid but it was god providence to get me to study the book of acts and it there it dawned on me there no separation between baptism and becoming a member When you were baptized you identified yourself with the people of God You were part of them It wasn't something you did later. It was the very thing that happened when you were baptized. How do I know that?

Look at Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Peter's preaching. and here right at the when Jesus ascended right before he ascended as he was with his disciples for that time he said to them what you go out and make disciples and what what happens is you read the book of acts and you see how they fulfilled that command and here's the very first instance of that how they obey Jesus command to make disciples so we come to the end of of Peter's sermon where he's proclaimed Jesus as this living Lord.

And he says in verses 40, here's the conclusion to a sermon. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. They preached the gospel of Jesus. He called for repentance, belief, and baptism.

And then they organized these disciples into communities called churches. As you read through the rest of the book of Acts, when you see them fulfilling Jesus' command to make disciples, they didn't just go out, get people converted, and then have a Bible study with them. You know what they did? They organized them into these visible, distinguishable communities called the church.

So as they fulfilled the Great Commission, they called for repentance, belief, baptism. And then those baptized believers were constituted as an assembly, a congregation, a church of disciples. And it was baptism that brought you into that visible community. Notice in the very first sermon preached, there were 120 disciples of Jesus. Right? After that sermon there were 3,120 disciples and they were added to that group.

Those 3,000 were added to this group that brought them into the fellowship of God's people. They were constituted a church. Baptism initiates you into Christ's church. By baptism you proclaim that you forsake the world that rejects Messiah. And you join the community that says, He is our Lord. As the people of that day watched the baptisms in Jerusalem, I think baptizing 3,000 people would have been pretty noticeable.

Don't you? Baptizing 3,000 people, those people watching, seeing all that, knew right away that those converts were identifying themselves with that group called the followers of Jesus. they knew that to identify yourself with Christ through baptism also means not you're just identifying with him but you're identifying with his people you're identifying with his people through that very same baptism now notice what happens verse 42 and they referring to these all that that were now followers of Jesus and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. They've devoted themselves to it.

That word devoted means to hold fast to something, to continue or persevere in something. It's like athletes, it's like Olympic athletes devoted to their sport, tenaciously pursuing the training, the exercise, the skills of that, not letting anything interfere with that devotion. That's the kind of word that's used here. And so as you're baptized into the church of Christ, you must be devoted to a body of believers where doctrine is taught.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to doctrine. Your baptism declares your devotion to a body of believers where fellowship is important, where our lives intersect. It says that you will hold fast to that group of people where the Lord's table is important. And finally, baptism says that you will devote yourself to prayer along with other believers.

That is why church membership is not your name on a list. If you refuse to devote yourself to these things, you're not acting like a member. And we need to recognize that. but if you really are a part of god's people you're going to devote yourself to those things that good those are going to be important to you those aren going to be things that you do when you have time those are the things you going to make time for You going to be devoted to it So you see baptism marks you out as a member of a local body of believers, as part of a congregation devoted to Jesus.

So you see, then, that baptism is not some quaint ceremony. I hope I've disabused you of that idea. Oh, this is nice. Jake's been baptized. Yay. how nice. It's more than that.

By baptism, you put on the uniform. You're putting on the uniform that says to everyone, I am committed to Jesus and I am committed to his people. Okay, that's what baptism says. Now, the Lord also gave us something else to observe until he returns, and that is the Lord's table. When it comes to communion, the Lord's table, the Lord's supper, the Eucharist, the different terms that are used of it, Jesus commanded us to observe this until he returns.

Listen to our verse then in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 if you would turn there. 1 Corinthians 11, of course, is the Apostle Paul addressing the church in Corinth and he's talking here about the way they're celebrating the Lord's supper and it's a rebuke to them. but in the midst of it he tells them what this supper is all about what the lord's table is all about first corinthians 11 verse 26 for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes that's what we're doing that's what we're doing why so here's the first question why should we proclaim the lord's death until he comes why should we do that? Well, the first thing is we should proclaim the Lord's death until he comes because we so, we too easily forget.

We too easily forget. Some time ago, I received an email from a childhood friend and he had attached a picture from years ago. It was a picture of my dad driving a little horse cart. And in that cart with him were two little boys with really goofy grins. It's my brother and me. It looked like the picture had been taken around 1962 or 1963, which to me was just like yesterday For some of you that like wow you remember that long ago I must have been maybe seven maybe eight years old Now that would have been a particularly exciting event for a seven to be riding in a horse cart, okay?

Where I grew up, there was nothing but cows, not like here where there's tons of horses. And to be in a cart, a horse cart, would have been really something. It would have been significant for me to be riding in a horse cart. But as I looked at that picture, I could not for the life of me remember that day. I don't have any clue when it was taken. I have a clue when it was taken, but I had no clue where it was taken, what we were doing, what was going on that day that my brother and I were in a horse cart.

What was my dad doing with a horse? I don't remember anything. You'd think that'd be a significant day, wouldn't you? But I'd forgotten all about it. I'd forgotten all about it, right? Now, I know I'm not the only one who forgets things.

Jesus thought it was necessary that his church have a constant reminder of his death. You know why? Because we'll forget too. We need a constant reminder. Without that reminder, we'll forget. without their mind, we'll forget and we'll even start to pervert the true meaning of what the Lord's death is. Do you remember the game called telephone?

Right? So you're at a party. You got about, I don't know, 10 people there. So you all sit down in a chair and the first one whispers a message to the second one and he whispers it to the next until you get to the end. Then you say, what did you say? and he says it, and the tenth person, what did you hear? And it's usually never, almost never the same thing, right?

Tim has a whole, Tim forgot to put his suspenders up, right? And then you get down here, and it says, Tim came out without his pants on, right? So, you know, that's how it works. If you just talk about something, it's easy to pervert it. But Jesus thought it necessary that we not just talk about his death, but having tangible reminders that speak of the giving of his body and his blood.

Tangible reminders. It reminds us that the only possibility of relating to God is through the death of his son It says that to us every time So we forget I would also suggest to you that without that reminder we would too easily slip into legalistic thinking because that's the default setting of our heart, which says, I've got to do something to be right with God. I've got to make it up to God.

I've got to do something to be right with God. And that, the Lord's table reminds us over and over and over again that it's nothing you can do. The only way you can relate to God is through the death of his son. So we should proclaim the death of Jesus until he comes because we too easily forget. We should proclaim the death of Jesus because his death is central to all our beliefs as Christians.

When Jesus instituted this table, he did not emphasize his words, important as those are. He did not emphasize his mighty deeds, important as those are. He didn't emphasize his incarnation, as important as that is. He emphasized his death. For without his death, none of the rest of it will make any difference. Without his death, his words will never find a place in our heart, will never find our obedience.

Without his death, his mighty deeds don't mean a thing. Without his death, his incarnation is silliness. So his death is central to all our beliefs. And so we preach the gospel to ourselves. Look at that word in chapter 11, verse 26 again. For often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Now the word proclaim is a word that means solemn declaration or preach. It actually means to preach. And so we preach the gospel to ourselves every day. If you look back at chapter 9 verse 14, that very same word is used. And it's used this way. In the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

Who's he talking about there? He's talking about pastors who earn their living by proclaiming the gospel. What do they do? They preach. He's talking about preachers. So, you see, when you participate in this celebration, you preach to yourself and to those around you.

The glories of the gospel. But you preach. When I'm preaching, what senses are engaged? Your sight and your hearing. When you preach with the Lord's table, what senses are engaged? Your sight, your hearing, your smell, your taste, your touch.

All of them are engaged, are they not? You know, we think we're so brilliant when we come up with audio-visual things. God had the idea a long time ago and the Lord's table is that that's how we preach we preach the gospel using all of our senses all of our senses what do we proclaim now we know why what do we proclaim what could we do with this we could spend literally the next 8 hours talking about what the Lord's death does but I just want to to point out just a few okay i want to point out just three okay here's the first when we absorb the lord observe the lord's table we proclaim that jesus absorbed the wrath of god jesus absorbed the wrath of god turn to first john chapter 4 verse 10 first john chapter 4 verse 10 get there quickly 1 John 4.10 here's what the apostle John writes to us in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins now God's law demands You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

But all of us have loved other things more. We've dishonored God because we've preferred everything else to loving and to serving him and to glorifying him. And it's not a small sin. It is a great sin. You know why? Because we're shaking our fist in the face of God, the one who rules.

It's not a small sin. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted Right When you say oh about your neighbor oh, I just would love to throttle him, people say, no, you shouldn't talk that way. If you say, boy, Trump, I just wish I could throttle him, and you say that in public, you could go to jail. Right? now the the the the the seriousness of the insult rises with the dignity of the person and you have insulted by not loving god you've insulted the greatest being in the whole universe that's a big thing and because god is just he cannot just sweep such crimes under the rug he can't do that he's got to punish because his wrath is holy when god pours out his anger he's not somebody losing his temper right have you ever got angry with your children yeah you're all looking at me like not me of course you have and you get angry with them because they oftentimes many times most of the time do bad things and you're right to be angry and so is God he has a right to be angry it's a holy wrath he's not flying off the handle he's not losing his temper he's saying what you have done is really bad and you need to be punished but God is not just holy he is also love and he is not satisfied with leaving the curse of our sin hanging over our heads and so he sent his son as a propitiation says this verse God's wrath is removed by providing a substitute for us now this is God's love not that we loved him but he loved us and he took the initiative and he sent his son he provided the substitute but when you look carefully at the cross you find that jesus did not merely cancel god's wrath he absorbed it he absorbed that wrath do you understand that God spent his wrath for his people on his son so that not one person who has entrusted himself to Jesus will ever have a drop of the wrath of God Not one.

Because Jesus absorbed it and turned it away from us. It was spent. It was not withdrawn. It was spent on his son. so that all who believe in him will not have a bit of the wrath of God. That's what we're saying when we come to the Lord's table, that Jesus absorbed the wrath of God. When we observe the Lord's table, we proclaim, we preach that we have a right to a clear conscience.

Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews 9. Look at verse 11. but when Christ appeared as a high priest Hebrews 9 verse 11 but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God we have a right to a clear conscience the problem of a of an accusing dirty conscience is as old as Adam and Eve.

As soon as they sinned, their conscience was defiled. Their sin, their sense of sin was ruinous. It ruined their relationship with God. They hid from him. It ruined their relationship with each other. They blamed each other.

It ruined their relationship with themselves. For the first time, they looked at themselves and felt shame. And all through the Old Testament, the conscience issue remains. God's people spilled the blood of animals in order to approach God. That's the reference here. He's talking about what happened in the Old Testament.

When you would come to God, you would have to kill an animal. The part of it was, one sacrifice was, you put your hand on the victim symbolically transferring your sin to the victim The victim was killed Therefore you don have you can approach God because someone else took something else took your sin There the ashes of a heifer he talks about being sprinkled on you to purify you to a certain degree so you could at least approach God But not one of those sacrifices ever gave an Old Testament believer the right to say, I'm alright with God. Why?

Because you had to do it over and over and over and over and over again. and all the time your conscience is saying, you're a sinner. You know, but now we live in a modern age, the age of organ transplants and cell phones and instant messaging. So do we still have that problem? I don't know anybody here who goes to the tabernacle and offers a sacrifice, yet our consciences still condemn us.

Our consciences still tell us that we're bad, that we've done wrong things. And so what do we do? You know what we do? We do things like this. We cut ourselves. Yeah, there's lots of particularly young people who cut themselves as they say, the pain in my body relieves the pain inside.

Right? There are people who cut themselves. There are people who give millions of dollars to United Way in order to somehow salve their conscience. And, of course, there's always the one that's available to everyone. Let's go serve a meal on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day to people who are poor. That'll make me feel better.

And of course, none of it works. None of it works. You feel good for a day or two, and then there's your conscience again. The stain remains. The only answer, even in these modern times, is the blood of Jesus. When your conscience rises up and condemns you, you have a refuge.

You know what that refuge is? You can turn to Christ, and you can say to your conscience, conscience, you're right, I've sinned. But there is my sin bearer. There is the one who has taken it all. There is the one who pleads my case before the Father. There is the one whose sacrifice is sufficient for all my sins.

And I can say to my conscience, be still. Be still. The last thing we can say when we observe the Lord's table, we proclaim our rescue from final judgment. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 there is a real judgment coming there is, people will deny it there is a real judgment coming because the Bible describes in the book of Hebrews A fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God's adversaries.

That shouldn't surprise us. God is a God of justice. By the way, when I say God is a God of justice, you know what we want to do? We want to say, yes, God, take out the leader of Syria and all the terrible things he's doing and take care of Putin and take care of Hitler and Stalin. Right? God's a God of justice.

But when I start saying God's a God of justice and he won't let any of your sins go, suddenly God now becomes a grandpa who doesn't hold our sins against us anymore. Right? I know what that's like. I'm a grandpa. But God isn't a grandpa. He's a God of justice.

And he'll take care of Hitler and Stalin, but he'll also take care of the people who spit in his face every day. He's a God of justice. We want his justice for other people, but never for us, don't we? But God is just and he has a holy wrath In the book of Revelation it described this The one who rejects Christ and gives his allegiance to another will drink the wine of God fury which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath.

He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night. That's a horrible thing to read about, isn't it? But here's the good news. here's what we proclaim at this table the fury of God's judgment is appeased it's turned away look at 1 Thessalonians I had you turn there right?

1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 what did the apostle Paul say his message was? he said this for they themselves that is these Macedonians report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God note and to wait for his son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. It's a horrible day of fury coming, but those who are in Christ can rest, can relax and say that fury will not be poured into my cup My cup is filled with the payment of Jesus It's full. There's no room for His fury at all.

That's good news. We're waiting for Jesus who will deliver us from the wrath to come. That's what we say at this table. We eat this table with joy. Why? Because that wrath is not mine.

The blood of Christ poured out on the cross protects us from the wrath of God and brings us to perfection and joy. No new sacrifice is needed. It's complete. It's done. The good news is no wrath. That's what we say at this table.

So set before us is this wonderful table of communion and by it we proclaim the gospel of Jesus. We preach the gospel again to ourselves and we assured once more that God anger has been turned away That we have a conscience that can be answered when it accuses us that there is no wrath to come We proclaim to ourself again all that Jesus did for us. So here we are on this Lord's Day, celebrating the baptism of Jake Studer as he proclaims his loyalty to Jesus and as we all come together to commune with one another and with the Lord Jesus at this table.

Again, proclaiming once again to our conscience, to our hearts, that what Jesus has done is enough. There's nothing more that God requires. Father, thank You for this day. What a delight it is to rejoice in the baptism of Jake and to rejoice in the glories of a Savior who has rescued us, not just from Your wrath, but has rescued us from our very own conscience and has made us, has shown us the love that You have for us.

Thank You for our time together. In Jesus' name, Amen.